I am a 25 year old African American male, and I have made the decision to continue my journey in life as a New York City Teaching Fellow. I got a job working at a Junior High school working within the realm of Special Education.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

I have a new student, Lex, who in my eyes, lives to make my life hell. He is a student I have no answers for in my bag of tricks. He got me. He gets deep under my skin. To make matters worse, he somehow convinced the rest of the class (which for the first week and a half of school has been a dream class to teach) to join the fire. On his very first day he tried to punk me in the classroom. He stole my cell phone. He talked about my mother. Dropped my personal laptop on the floor. And whatever I would say, he would respond, "blah, blah, blah." Then this fool had the nerve to spit in my face when he got sent to the Dean's office.

About ten minutes ago, I woke up and realized I was dreaming, or rather, 'nightmaring'. I'm going to go into work today thankful that I don't have Lex to make my life hell, but I feel for all of the teachers that have a 'Lex' because I know he exists.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

‘Breath in, breath out’ were the words that I told myself all day today. Prior to this morning, I told myself that if I could just make it through the first day, than I would be good. Thankfully, I am happy to say that I feel good with how the first day went. But I definitely need to figure out ways that I can walk away not feeling so drained. This job is not easy. And nobody said it would be. Many times I had to tell myself to lower my voice and change my tone. In fact, I told my students that if they hear me raising my voice to put me in check, because I would most definitely be checking them if their voice was raised and their tone was off. They laughed. In fact, “Mark” said hesitantly- “You mean.. um.. we can.. uh… tell you to uh… lower your voice?” “Exactly”. But today I really made a strong effort to focus on how I say what I want to say. The power of communication is so strong, I have to not let my message get mistaken due to the delivery. This year I’m going to focus on being as deliberate as possible.

Moving on…

The day was, much like last year- a blur. The periods were shortened due to an extended 1st period where I met my advisees and despite a few schedule overlooks on my part, the day was very smooth. I am excited for the possibilities that this year brings.

Breathing is everything. I am just so thankful that I have had the opportunity to add this experience to my life’s continuum of events, people, jobs, and stories.